The Simplest Wish List That Could Possibly Work
So, it's the holiday season. A time for families. A time for reunions. A time for giving.
And we wanted to create a kind of wish list feature for our shiny new online store. It would be a system that would allow our readers tell their non-technical relatives and friends the titles that they'd love to see under the tree.
So I got to planning. We've got all the power we need to create something special. I sketched out the mother of all wish lists, with referral logic, automated suggestions based on other people's wish lists, privacy settings, e-mail and web fulfillment, and so on and so on. It was to be a work of art.
Then, for once, I stopped to think.
So, for this year's wish list, we have no code whatsoever. And the more I think about it, the more I think that this simple solution is just as elegant as the complex, thousands-of-lines-of-code one we could have rolled out. The only downside I see is that our readers will have to find a red crayon from somewhere...
You're too clever! :-)
\David
Posted by: David Eriksson | December 03, 2007 at 03:02 PM
If only that approach would be taken more often :) ... There are a few projects I've worked on that would have definitely benefited from little more then a red crayon and some common sense!
Though I fear I've left getting my list on the fridge too long... the books will never arrive in NZ before xmas!
Posted by: Alex Henderson | December 03, 2007 at 04:09 PM
Cool! Now if only I had a printer...
Posted by: Phil Hagelberg | December 04, 2007 at 11:38 AM
Nice!
After all... paper and red crayon should be considered "software" tools as well as languages/procedures/framework and so on... ;-)
Posted by: Carlo | December 07, 2007 at 05:43 AM
I love it! Here is how to get the red crayon:
1. Take a child to Friendly's or similar family restaurant.
2. When child is not looking, steal red crayon that comes with child's menu.
3. When child complains or cries, etc, explain crayon was defective and needed to be upgraded.
Posted by: Owein Herrmann | December 12, 2007 at 12:53 PM
An elegant wishlist site in Ruby on Rails? We built one of those:
http://wishlisting.com/
Yes... thousands of lines of code. Yours is simpler :)
Posted by: Tom | January 02, 2008 at 09:14 PM